The challenge is to convey the complexities of the situation in graphic form, which amounts to large stretches of Roberson engaging in debate or explanatory dialogue. More recently, Pekar has been telling stories other than his ( Ego and Hubris, 2006, etc.), and here he recounts a student research trip taken by Roberson to discover how Macedonia was able to avoid the civil war and ethnic cleansing that had beset so much of what was formerly Yugoslavia. The unusual collaboration teams Roberson, formerly a peace-studies major at Berkeley, with artist Piskor and writer Pekar, who established his reputation through graphic memoir (and whose American Splendor series inspired the well-received film). This illustrated peace polemic and lesson in international relations is often educational but only occasionally engaging. “I do know the difference between right and wrong, though.”Įven if other posthumous work follows, it likely won’t be any richer than this.

Proudly Jewish but increasingly skeptical of Israel’s moral authority, Pekar makes no claim to expertise on Middle Eastern relations: “What do I know? I make comic books and write about jazz,” he admits. “Palestinians call it the great catastrophe.” Pekar deepens the discussion through conversations with the illustrator, who lived for a couple of years in Israel (where Pekar had once attempted to move, but he received no encouragement from the Israeli consulate). “Israelis mark this as a war of independence,” he says of the triumph he initially celebrated. In between, it encompasses centuries and continents against a backdrop of Jewish history (with appropriate flourishes and framing from the artist as the tale moves through Roman and Muslim periods), interspersed with the tale of Pekar’s experiences in Hebrew school, his initiation into the leftist politics of the 1960s, his disillusionment with Israel as an oppressor, and his empathy with Arabs who were seen as the enemy. The story begins with a visit by the narrator and the artist to a huge used bookstore in his native Cleveland and ends with them doing more library research. Both of his parents were ardent Zionists, but the author was not. The tone is quintessential Pekar, pulling no punches, while the focus extends beyond the purely personal to the history of the Jewish people and the formation and essence of Israel.

But the handsome hardback publication and the masterful illustration by Waldman ( Megillat Esther, 2006) confer a respectful legitimacy that shows how far the genre Pekar helped spawn has advanced since his early comic-book narratives. This posthumous publication reflects the seminal graphic memoirist at his edgy best.įrom the grave, the pugnacious Pekar ( Huntington, West Virginia “On the Fly, ” 2011) is still issuing challenges and picking fights.

Not the israel my parents promised me